The director of the DOE's Office of Science is profiled in International Innovation magazine and discusses how his office, as the country's single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences, is the prime supporter of research in fusion energy sciences. He also describes how his office is achiveing the goal of creating greater energy security for the U.S.

Researchers at a recent worldwide conference on fusion power have confirmed the surprising accuracy of a new model for predicting the size of a key barrier to fusion that a top scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has developed. The model could serve as a starting point for overcoming the barrier.

Researchers at a recent worldwide conference on fusion power have confirmed the surprising accuracy of a new model for predicting the size of a key barrier to fusion that a top scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has developed. The model could serve as a starting point for overcoming the barrier.

Michael Zarnstorff has been deputy director of research at PPPL since 2009 and a physicist at PPPL since 1984. As deputy director, he oversees physics experiments at PPPL and collaborations on fusion experiments around the world. Zarnstorff graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in physics in 1984.

Stefan Gerhardt is head of Experimental Research Operations for the National Spherical Torus Experiment- Upgrade (NSTX-U). He operates numerous diagnostics on NSTX-U, along with designing plasma control schemes and running physics experiments. He has previously worked on a wide variety of fusion machines, including spherical tokamaks, stellarators, and field reversed configurations.

Masa Ono is project director of the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U). Ono has led a number of PPPL research teams including those involved in the Advanced Concept Torus (ACT-1), the Current Drive Experiment (CDX), the Current Drive Experiment Upgrade (CDX-U) and the NSTX. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the author of more than 250 scientific papers.

Jonathan Menard is program director for the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) and is responsible for guiding the scientific research program of NSTX-U working with an international research team. His research interests include the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium and stability properties of spherical torus (ST) and tokamak plasmas, advanced operating scenarios in the ST, and the development of next- step ST options for fusion energy.

Robert (Bob) Kaita is head of boundary physics opera- tions for the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) and deputy head of research operations. Kaita is also a co-principal investigator of the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a recipient of the Kaul Foundation Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research. He has supervised the research of many students in the PPPL Program in Plasma Physics in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University.

Richard Hawryluk, the interim director of PPPL, is an internationally-known physicist and a former deputy director of PPPL. He served as the head of the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) Recovery Planning Project from 2016 through August of 2017.